1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to fan housing cleanout apparatus and more specifically to such apparatus for cleaning a fan housing through which mire or other sticky substances are passed during operation, such as through the fan housing part of a vacuum chamber included in a potato harvester.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fans generally operate in environmental conditions which permit hours of maintenance free operation before cleanup is required. This is true even for fans used in removing dirt and other air-borne particles from the air or from surfaces, such as fans in air conditioners, vacuum cleaners and the like. Therefore, it is not inherently aggravating or expensive to periodically shut down operations and to clean out such fan housings whenever residue build up requires it.
However, in the case of a fan operating in conjunction with relatively large quantities of extremely sticky substances, the continual stopping of operations to clean out the fan housing is both aggravating and expensive in terms of down time. For example, the latest generation of potato harvester utilizes such a fan. Generally, the harvester digs up the potatoes being harvested and conveys them to a separator, together with rocks, clay-like mud in which they are grown, and grasses and weeds that are inherently associated with the field growing of potatoes. This separator includes a vacuum chamber comprising a system of conveyor belts and a suction fan. The vacuum lifts the lighter potatoes from a main conveyor to a potato conveyor, permitting the heavier foreign particles--mainly rocks--to be unlifted and, hence, unharvested.
It will be apparent that, in addition to lifting potatoes, mud and other mire is drawn through the fan housing of the vacuum chamber. If conditions are wet and the mire is sticky, as is very often the case, then there is a rather rapid build up of this undesirable material in the fan housing that may become so bad as to render ineffective the operation of the fan. This means that the entire harvesting machine must be shut down while the fan housing is cleaned out, usually by scraping the mire from around the housing.
Needless to say, such cleaning is both inconvenient and time consuming.
It is therefore a feature of this invention to provide an improvement in a fan housing cleanout apparatus that achieves cleanout without suspension of fan operation.
It is another feature of the present invention to provide an improvement in apparatus for a fan housing that prevents build up of mire while the fan is operating, thereby minimizing start-and-stop fan operation for frequent periodic cleaning.